Arrangement and method relating to an image recording device

ABSTRACT

An input system for a digital camera may include a portion for taking at least one image to be used as a control image; and a controller to control at least one operation of the digital camera based on a control command recognized from the control image, the control command controlling a function of the camera.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to a method and arrangement indigital image recording device and, more particularly, remote control ofsuch a device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, have been popularfor years and yet only continue to increase in popularity.Traditionally, mobile phones had been used strictly for conventionalvoice communications. However, as technology has developed mobile,phones are now capable not only of conventional voice communications,but also are capable of data communications, video transfer, mediareproduction, commercial radio reception, etc. More and more, a userhaving a single electronic device such as a mobile phone is able toperform a variety of different functions.

Many mobile phones today include a camera function for taking pictures.The pictures may be stored digitally in memory, transmitted over thecarrier network, etc. As technology and manufacturing processes haveimproved, mobile phones presently are capable of capturing images atrelatively high resolutions previously found only in dedicated cameras.This has resulted in mobile phones possessing even more sophisticatedcamera features. These features include, for example, macro operation,auto focus control, red-eye reduction, etc.

Taking pictures using a self-timer is problematic since it is hard toframe the picture in a smart way, because the user (the object to bephotographed) is not able to see the recorded image area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a functionality in adigital image recording device, for example, a camera incorporated in awireless communication terminal, or the like, which allows determiningan image recording time and/or area using remote control using, forexample, a body part.

Embodiments of the invention provide a method for input into a digitalcamera. The method may include: using at least one image or part of theimage as a control image, comparing the control image to a correspondingcontrol command, selecting a control command according to a comparisonresult, the control command controlling the camera remotely, andexecuting the control command. For example, the control command may beat least one of a self timer setting command, cropping, or zooming. Thecontrol command may be generated by one or more body parts or anindicator. For example, the control command may include a hand gesture.The control command may also include commands for controlling at leastone of a flash, a focus, colour settings, or a camera mode. The commandmay also be used to mark up an object.

According to one embodiment, the control command may generate a boundaryfor limiting image. The boundary may be a virtual frame generated byportions of a command generating part.

For example, the body part may belong to one or more persons.

The invention also relates to an input system for a digital camera. Thesystem may include: a portion for taking at least one image to be usedas a control image; a controller configured to control at least oneoperation of the digital camera in accordance with a control commandrecognized from the control image, the control command controlling afunction of the camera. The function may be at least one of a self timersetting command, cropping, or zooming.

According to one embodiment, the controller may include: a control imagemapper for mapping a first image to a control command; an imagecomparator for selecting a target control command by comparing the inputimage with the control image; and a control image adapter for executingthe control commands mapped to the target control image

The command may set a virtual frame for zooming on an area sat by theframe.

The input system may be incorporated in a gaming device, web camera,laptop computers, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a surveillancecamera, a GPS (Global Positioning System) device, a video camera, and/ora mobile communication terminal.

The invention also relates to a mobile communication terminal includinga memory, a key input unit, a display unit, a transceiver, a camera, anda controller for controlling at least one operation of the camera inaccordance with a control command selected by comparing an input imageand a control command, the control command controlling the terminalremotely. The command may be at least one of a self-timer settingcommand, cropping, or zooming.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate an embodiment of the inventionand, together with the description, explain the invention. In thedrawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a portion of a digital cameraaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a configuration of the digital camera according tothe present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a person to be photographed by the camera accordingto FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 illustrates a resulting image;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram according to the method of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile communication deviceaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described withreference to the accompanying drawings in detail. The same referencenumbers are used throughout the drawings and may refer to the same orlike parts. For the purposes of clarity and simplicity, detaileddescriptions of well-known functions and structures incorporated hereinmay be omitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the presentinvention. Further, the drawings and description are to be regarded asillustrative in nature and not restrictive.

According to the teachings of the present invention, the gesture images,e.g., by using hand gesture recognition that is focused on the framinghand gesture, e.g., using the thumb and the other fingers holdingtogether and the hands positioned opposite each other, the arrangementof the invention can, for example, exactly know where to crop or zoomand/or start a self timer to start recording an image. When a gesture isidentified, the camera zoom or crops and start the self timer, it couldfurther automatically retouch the picture so that possible “body parts”are removed (at same time or a later stage).

In the following exemplary embodiments, the hands of a human are givenas an example and it should be appreciated that other body parts orspecific maker devices may achieve the same purposes.

In an embodiment, for example, hands positioned opposite each othercould belong to different persons, so the camera can efficiently frame agroup picture.

In the following, the gesture recognition input system and method of thepresent invention is described in association with an operation of amobile phone. However, the gesture recognition input system and methodcan be used with other devices that have a camera for taking an imagesand memory for storing representative images matching correspondinginstructions. For example, the hand gesture recognition input system andmethods can be implemented with information processing devices such as acellular phone, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) receiver, PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), Smartphone, International MobileTelecommunication 2000 (IMT-2000) terminal, Wideband Code DivisionMultiple Access (WCDMA) terminal, and Universal Mobile TelecommunicationService (UMTS) terminal.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hand gesture recognition inputsystem for a digital camera, for example incorporated in a mobile phoneaccording to one embodiment of the present invention. The hand gesturerecognition input system may include a camera 100, a memory unit 120, adisplay 130, a controller 140, and a timer 150. The timer function maybe incorporated in controller 140.

In operation, camera 100 may capture an image, for example, using a lens101 and a photo-sensitive sensor 102, and convert the image into adigital signal using an encoder 103. In this embodiment, hand gesturescaptured by the camera may be stored as control images. For obtainingvarious hand gesture control images, camera 100 can capture motionimages as well as still images and temporarily store the images in abuffer memory. The control images may be mapped to specific positioncontrol commands so as to be used for a frame manipulation, according tothe invention.

Memory unit 120 may store a plurality of application programs foroperating functions of the mobile phone including camera operationapplications, and the control images. Memory unit 120 includes a programmemory region and a data memory region.

The program memory region stores an operating system (OS) for managinghardware and software resources of the mobile phone, and applicationprograms for operating various functions associated with multimediacontents such as sounds, still images, and motion pictures, and cameraoperation applications. The mobile phone activates the applications inresponse to a user request under the control of controller 140.

The data memory region may store data generated while operating theapplications, particularly the control images in corporation with thecamera operation application. A portion of the data memory region can beused as the buffer memory for temporarily storing the images taken bycamera 100.

Display 130 may have a screen, for example, for displaying various menusfor the application programs and information input or requested by auser. Display 130 may also display still or motion images taken whileviewing an image projected on a camera lens. Display 130 can be a liquidcrystal display (LCD) or any other type of display. In a case when theLCD is implemented with a touch-screen, display 130 can be used as anadditional input means. Display 130 can display menu windows associatedwith the application programs so as to allow the user to select optionsfor operating the application programs.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of therecognition according to the present invention.

The image data received from camera 100 may either be stored in memoryunit 120 or an intermediate memory or directly be processed bycontroller 140.

Controller 140 may include, as applications in software or hardware, acontrol sign generator 141 for controlling camera 100 to capture theimages, an image mapper 142 for mapping the images to a correspondingcontrol commands, a control image comparator 143 for comparing inputimages taken by camera 100 to the control commands, and a control imageadapter 144 for executing the focus, crop, timer, or other functions. Aself timer 150 may be provided with a time period to start countdown andoutputs a signal to the controller (or directly to camera 100) to recordan image.

In operation, controller 140 may execute gesture recognition operationon a temporary image captured by camera 100 and store it as a controlimage into memory unit 120 (or another intermediate memory). Controlsign generator 141 may control the temporary image for hand gestures ofthe user, and select and store the control image, for example, in memory120.

Image mapper 142 may link the collected control image to the controlcommands for controlling the zooming, focusing, cropping, and/or timerfunctions; this may also be carried out in association with menu optionsof camera 100.

The control commands mapped to the control image include one or severalactivation commands. The control commands may, for example, instructcamera controller 140 to zoom to a specific area, for example,constituted by the hands of the user.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate an exemplary case. An object 300 uses her hands301, 302 to either control a self timer of the camera or generate avirtual frame 310 or both functions. When the image is received by thecontroller, it scans the image (data) and looks for, for example handpalm(s) 303, 304 and/or fingertips 305 or any other predefined shapes orparts relatable to a statistical or stationary gesture. For example, thefocus activation command can be represented by a hand gesture imageaccording to FIG. 3 in which joints 307 of thumbs and index fingersconstitute the lower part of the frame and fingertips the upper part ofthe frame and the sides may be generated using upper and lower sides'endpoints. The timer function may be activated using only apredetermined time by detecting the specific position of the hands or itmay be set to a time period, for example by counting the number offingers or fingertips.

FIG. 4 illustrates the resulting image, in which the controller hasproduced a zoomed picture based on virtual frame 310.

As described earlier, control image mapper 142 may establish mappingsbetween the hand gestures/shape and the control commands. Also, othercontrol commands can be represented with, for example, a hand gesturetransition from an initial hand gesture. Image comparator 143 maycompare the gesture in the temporary currently captured image with thecontrol commands for example stored in the memory and determines whetherthe currently captured image is valid as a control image. That is,control image comparator 143 may monitor the image input through camera100 and detect similarities of the currently captured images to thecontrol commands. Moreover, if an image of which the similarity is in atolerable range for any control command is detected, control imagecomparator 143 may report the valid command to control image adapter144. The tolerable range may be set for checking an offset between aninput image and control images regardless of a position of the hand. Theoffset between the two images may be determined in association with asize of the hand and angles of the fingers, and expressed in an offsetpercentage. If the offset lies within the tolerable percentage range,control image comparator 143 may determine an input of the controlcommand. Control image comparator 143 may compare incoming images to thecontrol commands using a wide tolerable range through a rough comparisonprocess and then compare the currently captured image to the controlimages selected at the rough comparison process through a finecomparison process.

Control image adapter 144 may control the execution of the controlcommand mapped to the control image determined by control imagecomparator 143.

As described above, the hand gesture recognition input system of thepresent invention may determine an input of a control image captured bya camera and execute a control command, such as setting the self timerand/or zooming, mapped to the control image.

When it is established that a control command is in the image and thenature of the control command is determined, a second picture may betaken based on the instructions related to the control command, forexample, starting the self timer and/or zooming to a target area,without the user having to maneuver the camera using menus at thedisplay or control bottoms, etc.

The controller may further comprise an image enhancer 145. The croppingand zooming operations can be executed after that the entire image isacquired. Image enhancer 145 may obtain the image from memory 120 and,based on the information from the mapper, find the virtual frame andcrop the image to the frame.

Thus, a generalized method of the invention illustrated in FIG. 5includes the operations of:

-   -   (1) acquiring an image    -   (2) looking up the image or part of it for a control command and        comparing the control image to a corresponding control commands        in the memory,    -   (3) if there are no control commands detected, the image is        stored as an ordinary image,    -   (4) If a control command is detected as a comparison result, the        type of it is recognized, and    -   (5) the control command is executing.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a mobilecommunication terminal 60 in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 6, the mobile communicationterminal 60 may includes a memory 620, a key input unit 605, a displayunit 630, a transceiver 604, a camera 600, and a controller 640.Controller 640 may process voice signals and/or data according to theprotocol for a phone call, data communication, or wireless Internetaccess and controls the respective components of the mobilecommunication terminal, and operates as described earlier. Naturally,additional controllers may be implemented to carry out the functions asdescribed. Furthermore, controller 640 may receive key input from keyinput unit 605, and control display unit 630 to generate and provideimage information in response to the key input, for example, setting theterminal in camera mode. The commands may also control other functionsof the terminal such as calling a certain number, Internet surfing, etc.

As mentioned earlier, the user does not need to use hands. In a grouppicture, for example, two persons may use their arms to generate thevirtual frame around the group of people/objects to be photographed.

Other fields of application for the invention may include: gamingdevice, webcam, laptop computers, surveillance camera, GPS, and videocameras.

Moreover, a user can have a camera mounted on a carrier, for example, onthe shoulder, in a headset, heads up display or in glasses. In such awearable the method can be used to likewise zoom, take pictures, or beused to mark/indicate an object that the user wants want to manipulate,for example, marking an object that should be tagged (e.g., with voice)or make a query about “marked up a sign” and ask for information. Inthis case the communication device may send a query to a databaseservice with the marked up object, and obtain a response.

It should be noted that the word “comprising” does not exclude thepresence of other elements or steps than those listed and the words “a”or “an” preceding an element do not exclude the presence of a pluralityof such elements. It should further be noted that any reference signs donot limit the scope of the claims, that the invention may be implementedat least in part using both hardware and software, and that several“means”, “units” or “devices” may be represented by the same item ofhardware.

The above mentioned and described embodiments are only given as examplesand should not be limiting to the present invention. Other solutions,uses, objectives, and functions within the scope of the invention asclaimed in the below described patent claims should be apparent for theperson skilled in the art.

1. In a camera, a method of inputting, the method comprising: using atleast one image or part of the image as a control image; comparing thecontrol image to a corresponding control command; selecting a controlcommand based on a result the comparison, the control commandcontrolling the camera remotely; and executing the control command togenerate a boundary for limiting a captured image, wherein the boundaryis a virtual frame generated by portions of a command generating part,and wherein at least one of the using, comparing, selecting, orexecuting occur during a self timer mode of operation.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the control command is at least one of cropping, orzooming.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the control command isgenerated by one or more body parts or an indicator.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the body part belongs to one or several persons.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the control command comprises a hand gesture.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the control command further comprisescommands for controlling at least one of a flash, a focus, coloursettings, or a camera mode.
 7. An input system for a camera, comprising:a portion for taking at least one image to be used as a control image;and a controller configured to control at least one operation of thecamera based on a control command recognized from the control image, thecontrol command controlling a function of the camera during a self timermode of operation, where the control command generates a boundary forlimiting a captured image, and where the boundary is a virtual framegenerated by portions of a command generating part.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the function is at least one of cropping, or zooming.9. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller comprises: a controlimage mapper to map a first image to a control command; an imagecomparator to select a target control command by comparing the inputimage with the control image; and a control image adapter to execute thecontrol commands mapped to the target control image.
 10. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the control command sets the virtual frame for zoomingon an area defined by the frame.
 11. The system of claim 7, incorporatedin a gaming device, a web camera, a laptop computers, a PDA (PersonalDigital Assistant), a surveillance camera, a GPS (Global PositioningSystem) device, a video camera, or a mobile communication terminal. 12.A mobile communication terminal comprising: a memory; a key input unit;a display unit; a transceiver; a camera; and a controller to control atleast one operation of the camera based on a control command selected bycomparing an input image and the control command, the control commandcontrolling the terminal remotely during a self timer mode of operation,where the control command generates a boundary for limiting a capturedimage, and where the boundary is a virtual frame generated by portionsof a command generating part.
 13. The mobile communication terminal ofclaim 12, wherein the command is at least one of cropping, or zooming.